A statement released by the scholars described the most recent arrest of two Bahraini Shiite clerics as a “dangerous development”.

Sheikh Hani al-Banna and Sheikh Yassin al-Jamri were detained on Sunday following a grueling nine-hour interrogation.

“The sectarian persecution in the Ashura season of this year has led to the arrest of two scholars and preachers of the religious pulpit over the traditional Husseini reading throughout the country,” the statement notes.

“We call for an immediate halt to this abhorrent sectarian policy,” the scholars added.

Ashura is a major part of the Shiite religious calendar when communities around the globe mourn the martyrdom of the grandson of Prophet Mohammed, Imam Hussein (AS).